India ranked third highest in the world in terms of military spending in 2021, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
India’s military spending in 2021 was the third highest in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). India’s military expenditure was $76.6 billion in 2021, up 0.9 per cent from 2020 and 33 per cent from 2012.
In a push to strengthen the indigenous arms industry, 64 per cent of capital outlays in India’s military budget of 2021 was earmarked for acquisitions of domestically produced arms.
WORLD MILITARY EXPENDITURE
The United States and China, meanwhile, occupied the first and second spots in the list of world’s largest military spenders. US military spending reached USD 801 billion in 2021, a drop of 1.4 per cent from 2020. China, on the other hand, spent USD 293 billion on defence, an increase of 4.7 per cent compared with 2020.
World military expenditure has reached an all-time high of USD 2.1 trillion in 2021, as per SIPRI.
Total global military expenditure increased by 0.7 per cent in real terms in 2021, to reach USD 2113 billion. The five largest spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia, together accounting for 62 per cent of expenditure,” the Stockholm-based institute said in a statement.
Even amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, world military spending hit record levels. There was a slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth due to inflation. In nominal terms, however, military spending grew by 6.1 per cent,” said Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
